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00:00 Well, just general, I mean every year you have to rebuild things a little bit, so you get to look at this through practice. What do you think?
00:09 Like this team, I think it's too early to tell just how good we are. You play all these inner squads and last weekend we threw a couple of shutouts in the inner squads and you're like, "Geez, we can't hit at all."
00:28 And the week before we scored a ton of runs and it's like, "Geez, we can't pitch at all." So, you never really know until you play somebody else.
00:37 But yeah, like to make up, got a lot of good players, they're working extremely hard, putting a lot of effort into being a good team and that's what it takes.
00:46 I think in some areas we're better than we were last year, other areas we're not as good. But in typical fashion, we won't know until we're about 20 games in exactly how good we are.
01:00 I know you had to remake a lot of that, right?
01:05 Yeah, you know, the transfer portal, people get mad at the portal, but the portal's been pretty good to Mountaineer baseball here the last couple of years.
01:15 I think this season is no different. I think we've got some really, really important pieces that we got out of the portal that are going to help us be significant contributors to the program.
01:28 So, a lot of guys that nobody even knows who they are yet. So, pretty excited about the new guys.
01:35 Coach, can you just talk about, obviously you guys made the announcement that this will be your last season.
01:41 Can you just kind of talk about what went into it, what made you feel comfortable that this was going to be it for you and your thoughts on this being your last season here after building this program up the way you have?
01:54 I knew somebody was going to ask me that. I thought it would be Angelica.
02:01 Yeah, I'm trying not to think about it that way. My wife makes me think about it that way.
02:10 Every time I go home from something, she says, "Do you realize that's the last time you're ever going to do that?"
02:17 So, yeah, I don't think that part of it will hit me until probably the last game, the last home game, that type of thing.
02:25 The community has been so good to me and my family. We've kind of ingrained ourselves in this community.
02:33 All I'll tell you about my decision is that I did it in the best interest of this baseball program, this university, this state, all the things that I've grown to love so much.
02:49 Had I not decided to do it when I did it, I don't know how the next two, three, or four years would have gone here.
02:57 So I did it for the right reasons, so I feel good about it as far as that goes.
03:04 Retirement's pretty easy to talk about, but when you actually pull the trigger on it, then things change a little bit.
03:11 So we'll see how it goes when I get into it.
03:14 But in this profession, you miss so much of life. You miss so much of your family.
03:24 I wanted to spend more time with them than I've ever been able to do.
03:30 I feel like we've got this program to a place now that's not just successful, but it's sustainable.
03:38 I didn't feel like somebody coming in from the outside that didn't know anything about this community or this state would be the right thing for this program.
03:48 Saves has been with me for a long time now, and he kind of knows how to do this thing.
03:54 So that's important to me.
03:57 All I can say about Saves is I'm entrusting him with my son, who's coming here to play.
04:04 So that should speak volumes about how I feel about him, the fact that I'm perfectly happy that my son will be under his guidance while he's here.
04:14 Do you have any thoughts or plans made yet for life after coaching? Have you gotten that far yet?
04:20 I might become a reporter.
04:22 [laughter]
04:27 No, I've got plenty of things to do. I've got a lot of hobbies.
04:30 I feel for those guys that don't have hobbies and get super obsessed with their profession.
04:37 I've got a lot of things I can do, but my main goal is going to be, like I said, to just enjoy life with my family.
04:46 But I still want to continue to match the community with this program and this program with the community,
04:54 because it's two different entities that I happen to love.
04:58 And I love the players because I know a lot about them.
05:02 I want the community to know a lot about them, and they'll love them equally as much as I do.
05:09 And I want the players to love this community the way I do.
05:12 So I'll continue to be involved with getting the community excited about West Virginia baseball
05:19 and getting the state excited.
05:21 I just won't be out there in uniform.
05:23 Other people can teach kids how to hit curveballs,
05:27 but I think I've got a bigger mission to keep the state of West Virginia involved in this program.
05:36 The other day about the heightened season ticket sales at an all-time high.
05:42 What does that say about -- you know, you've talked about the process that you've had in building this program,
05:48 making it become part of the community.
05:50 Obviously that's a major step in the right direction,
05:52 and I don't know if you always saw that coming earlier in your career or not.
05:58 You know, when we got here, back when we got here, it was -- you had visions of all this, you know,
06:04 but realistically a lot of people thought I was crazy for coming here.
06:10 You know, the first time I'd take them to Holly Field, you know, they'd say, "What are you doing, Mase?"
06:15 But, you know, you had visions of the facility and the conference and the type of players we could get here,
06:22 and I think we've accomplished a lot in my time here,
06:27 but there's still some things that would be cool to do in my last year, you know, that we haven't done yet.
06:33 So I'm not limping off into the sunset just yet.
06:38 You know, I like this team and what they're capable of accomplishing,
06:43 and that would be really cool if we could send me off with a bang, so to speak.
06:49 So that's what my goal for right now is.
06:52 Randy, go back to when you took the job, and you say you didn't know anything about the community really,
06:58 and you got to see Holly Field.
07:00 I mean, was it just a Power 5 head coaching job at that time that got you here, or, you know, I mean,
07:08 why did you choose to come to a program that was, you know, somewhat down?
07:14 You know, there's--in this profession, you look back the last 20 years,
07:18 and there's some programs that people consider to be sleeping giants, so to speak,
07:24 and everybody in the coaching profession always thought that this was one of them,
07:30 and when the opportunity came here to do that, it wasn't just a Power 5 program.
07:37 It was a Power 5 program that you really thought you could make a difference in,
07:43 and then you talk to Oliver Locke and Kelly Cunningham at the time.
07:47 It's Kelly's in now, but talk to them and see what their vision of the program is,
07:53 and it takes a village, you know, and there was a lot of people involved that convinced me
08:01 that we're going to invest in this program and invest in the resources
08:04 and let you do the things you know how to do, and it just left those meetings thinking,
08:11 yes, the program's in tough shape right now, but there's no doubt it can be better.
08:16 Just don't know how much better, but looking back on it, I think we've made it much better.
08:23 So, like I said, there's not many sleeping giants even left out there, so it was a program.
08:31 You know, me being from west central Pennsylvania, I've been in the football stadium
08:36 when I was a kid and spent a lot of time in this area deer hunting,
08:40 and so I knew Morgantown and knew a little bit about it
08:43 and thought it would be a great place to raise kids and raise a family,
08:48 and they were young when we came here, so a lot of stars had to align, and they actually did.
08:54 So it's worked out pretty well.
09:00 You mentioned Wimmer a little while ago.
09:02 Some people would like to coach their son, and I know he's got a few years before he gets to this level,
09:07 but he said he's coming, so that wasn't a temptation for you?
09:14 I want to coach my son.
09:17 I don't want my son to be coached by me is the difference.
09:22 I'd love for him to be out here and me be on the field with him literally every time he's out there,
09:29 so it was never I didn't want to coach Wimmer.
09:33 I didn't want him to spend four years on a college baseball team
09:39 and go back to the dorm and listen to his teammates telling everybody
09:43 what a rotten piece of crap his daddy is kind of thing.
09:47 That's tough on a kid to be coached by your dad,
09:51 and I wouldn't have done what I did had I not felt good about the people
09:57 that were going to coach him when he got here.
10:00 Selfishly, that was part of it.
10:05 I love Saves and Jagar and Oney and Ginter when he was here
10:10 and was really comfortable that he would be coached by them
10:14 and they would make him a better player, a better person.
10:18 He'd be involved in the community, so I always wanted to coach him,
10:22 but I will really enjoy watching him.
10:27 I'd always thought about retiring when that happened,
10:33 and the kicker for me was we were playing Texas Tech last year here,
10:39 and I think we were beating them 17-2 on a Sunday.
10:44 I can't remember what day it was, and we were in the 7th or 8th inning,
10:48 and the game was pretty much in hand.
10:52 And Wammer had a baseball game at Milan Park at the same time.
10:57 Sierra had a softball game on the field right beside them,
11:01 and I thought to myself, "I'd rather be there right now."
11:07 And when that thought occurred to me, I thought, "It's not fair to my team,
11:15 to the community, to the state for me to want to be somewhere else at that moment."
11:21 So I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
11:26 If you're ever doing a job and for any moment in time you wish you were somewhere else,
11:32 then it's probably time for somebody else to run this program.
11:38 Did you take on any added responsibilities this season
11:40 to try to get him ready for next year?
11:44 I don't really think so because I've given him a ton of responsibilities
11:48 for the last four or five years because he's--
11:51 you guys have probably heard me say that as a leader of anything,
11:56 one of the most important parts of being a leader
11:58 is you have to recognize that you're not good at everything.
12:02 And when you're not good at everything, surround yourself with people
12:06 who are good at the things you're not good at,
12:09 and that's what I feel like I've done pretty well,
12:12 surround myself with guys who can take care of the things that they're better at than I am.
12:18 And there are some areas that he's better than me.
12:22 I hope he feels that way when he's the head coach
12:26 and surrounds himself with the right people, and I know he will.
12:30 But, yeah, he's always had a lot of responsibility in this program
12:35 because I've allowed him to do that because he's really good at stuff like that.
12:41 I've got a baseball question for you if you're ready for one.
12:43 Are we going to talk baseball? Seriously?
12:45 Yeah.
12:46 It was at this point last year where you came out
12:49 and basically told us that J.J. was going to have an amazing year
12:54 and become this amazing guy, and of course he did.
12:59 A year later, what can J.J. still accomplish at this level?
13:07 I mean, the sky's the limit for that kid.
13:09 I think he can accomplish a lot at this level, a lot at the next level,
13:14 and the level after that and after that.
13:16 He's super capable.
13:18 His big deal this year, obviously, is going to be to just play baseball.
13:24 He's surrounded by so much hype, you know,
13:27 and everybody wants to talk to him and wants his autograph
13:30 and wants to know how he feels and why'd you come back and why'd you do this.
13:33 And if he just can take his mind back to when he was 12 years old
13:37 and just go to the field to enjoy playing baseball
13:40 and see the ball and hit the ball and not worry about all the stuff around him,
13:46 then he'll continue to thrive because he's a really good player.
13:50 And if he just plays like he's capable of, he'll still be J.J.,
13:55 but it's not easy.
13:57 It's not easy for him to go through what he's going through.
14:03 Baseball is a lot easier for him than the stuff other than baseball.
14:07 So, he just needs to play.
14:11 And I've got all the faith in the world in him that he'll do that.
14:15 Those are conversations you probably have had with him.
14:19 Yeah, it's just right down to how you sign autographs
14:22 and how you deal with the community.
14:24 And that's the stuff he has to deal with.
14:26 There's going to be scouts in the stands every game he plays
14:29 and social media and projections
14:32 and people are going to be asking him a ton of non-baseball questions.
14:36 But he's a super mature kid.
14:39 There's not a box that he doesn't check that is the right way to handle things.
14:45 So, I feel certain that he'll be able to do that.
14:49 What did you say about him that in the age of the transfer portal and NIL
14:52 that he chose to stay at West Virginia
14:55 and not possibly go anywhere else in the country?
14:59 Yeah, you know, that's a good time to ask that question.
15:03 You guys know I got mad last year when people were asking him that
15:07 before the season was over.
15:08 I thought that was pretty unprofessional at the time
15:12 to have your best player be asked that before they were done playing.
15:16 But looking back on it now, it says not only a lot about JJ, the person,
15:23 and his loyalty, it says a lot about our program too.
15:27 You know, he obviously wants to play in a good program
15:31 and feels like we can accomplish a lot of things here.
15:34 If we didn't have a good program, he probably would have left.
15:39 You know, so it says a lot about West Virginia baseball and JJ Weatherholt
15:45 and the loyalty that he has and the program that we have.
15:49 It seems stupid to say what can he improve on after hitting 446
15:54 or whatever it was, but what can he improve on as far as a hitter goes?
15:59 And why are they going to pitch to him at all?
16:01 You know, I think what he can improve on, what we talk about a lot,
16:05 is not just him but all the players.
16:10 Their goals don't need to be, "I need to hit 300,"
16:15 or, "I need to win 10 games."
16:17 Your goals just need to be to exceed your expectations.
16:22 And if he's trying to go out and hit 500 this year,
16:27 he's going to be disappointed.
16:29 Nobody's ever done that, you know.
16:31 So he just needs to be realistic.
16:35 I mean, if he hits 420 this year, it's a great year.
16:42 But you can look at it two ways.
16:45 It wasn't as good as last year, but who wouldn't want to hit 420?
16:49 You know, it's just all the mentality he takes going into it
16:53 because nobody's ever been perfect at baseball.
16:56 He's going to make outs.
16:58 He's going to strike out at times.
16:59 He's going to make errors.
17:01 If he treats that like it's the end of the world,
17:04 then it has a chance to snowball on you.
17:07 But if he understands that that's part of baseball, then he'll be fine.
17:12 He just needs to be JJ.
17:14 But, yeah, he's very capable of handling all that, I think.
17:20 To shortstop, can you just kind of talk about what went into that?
17:24 Or was that just something maybe you kind of saw maybe last year moving forward
17:28 or something you saw in the offseason?
17:31 I know he played it in high school, right?
17:36 But he hasn't --
17:37 Yeah, he's our best player, and that's the most important position probably.
17:42 So you want your best player in the best spot kind of thing.
17:46 And his freshman year he played third base.
17:49 Sophomore year he played second base.
17:52 Now he's playing shortstop.
17:54 It would be cool if he played them all.
17:56 If he came back for five more years, he could play all of them.
18:00 But, yeah, that's really going to benefit him moving forward
18:05 because I felt like I've done some guys in this program a disservice
18:10 by pigeonholing them into one particular position.
18:14 The Tevin Tuckers and the Jimmy Gluskies,
18:16 those guys that only played shortstop here, and then when they signed pro,
18:21 somebody jams them at third base or second base.
18:24 They've got no experience there.
18:26 So JJ has played multiple positions.
18:30 So I feel good that at the next level he can play multiple positions.
18:35 That benefits him and us.
18:38 JJ obviously made the big jump from his freshman year to his sophomore year.
18:42 Is there a player on this team who can--not the similar type jump--
18:45 but can make a big jump from what they did last year to this year?
18:50 I think there are.
18:53 A really important part of this team is our catcher, Logan Sauve,
18:57 who split time with Dane Leonard last year.
19:01 He did a lot of DHing.
19:02 He'll be doing the majority of catching this year.
19:05 I think he hit, I don't know, 260 or 270, but he's a tremendous player.
19:11 He could be a breakout type player, I think.
19:15 Probably the most important spot in our lineup this year
19:18 is the guy that hits behind JJ.
19:21 To answer your question, Bob,
19:24 is everybody just going to walk him all the time?
19:26 If they want to walk him and let him steal second base
19:29 and have somebody drive him in, that's a win for the Mountaineers too.
19:34 It looks like Logan will be hitting behind JJ at least to start the season.
19:40 JJ, you probably lead off that still is kind of what you're thinking?
19:44 Yeah, I think so.
19:47 It's crazy these days in baseball.
19:50 You literally can submit nine names into a computer
19:54 and there's some program that spits back the perfect lineup.
19:58 But they can't measure how the crowd reacts when JJ steps in the box
20:05 and the energy that gives you to start a game.
20:09 If people want to pitch around JJ to lead off the game, we'll take that.
20:16 To coach this sport, you've got to have some feel.
20:22 The experts would tell you don't put your best hitter in that spot.
20:27 But I just want the energy in the stadium to be at an all-time high
20:33 when that guy steps into the plate.
20:36 I think that's where he'll start.
20:39 But it always changes too.
20:41 Randy, with the new Big 12 scheduling set up,
20:43 the fact that you've got more games than earlier games,
20:46 does it change the complexion of the season?
20:48 Does it force you to make some lineup decisions
20:50 maybe a little bit earlier than usual?
20:52 Yeah, we've got the old cougars of BYU rolling in here first weekend of March.
20:56 So we only have three non-conference weekends now instead of five.
21:01 So, yeah, it would be ideal if your best team was in place when that happened.
21:06 And that is a lot earlier.
21:08 But we're in a situation with this team, I don't know what the lineup is right now.
21:14 We still have guys battling in outfield spots and infield spots and on the mound.
21:20 But, yeah, it's the fact that we've been outside so much
21:24 and have gotten to play a lot of inter-squads outside in the preseason has helped that.
21:30 And today marks the first time ever since I've been here
21:35 that we are playing an inter-squad game under the lights before the season started.
21:41 So first pitch is at 6 o'clock today, which has never happened,
21:45 I don't think, for a preseason inter-squad game.
21:50 There's two feet of snow out there.
21:51 Usually there's two feet of snow.
21:53 But it's been wonderful.
21:55 And don't ever under-emphasize the importance of that when we get started,
22:00 the fact that we've been outside.
22:02 There's been seasons where our first day outside was the first game.
22:07 And when old Coach Mazey does limp off into the sunset,
22:11 I hope to make some positive changes in college baseball as a sport.
22:16 And that's definitely one of them that needs changing.
22:19 Could you imagine if that happened in football and basketball,
22:23 that a football team actually couldn't practice on their field until the season started?
22:29 What kind of an outcry are we really talking about?
22:33 But in baseball it's just accepted.
22:36 Yeah, it's an afterthought.
22:40 So the league, like you were talking about, expanded from 24 to 30 games.
22:44 Next year the league expands again.
22:46 Is there talk on what the conference schedule will be?
22:48 I don't care about next year.
22:50 Didn't we just have that conversation?
22:53 No, I'm kidding.
22:57 Yeah, it's always a moving target, you know.
23:00 And when the Arizona schools come in and the schools out west,
23:03 you'd like to sit there and think, okay,
23:06 we know what our schedule's going to be two years from now and three years from now,
23:09 but we don't.
23:11 There's so much that goes into scheduling with exam weeks and travel.
23:16 We don't want to have a year where you go out to Arizona for a three-game series in March
23:21 and then turn around and go to Arizona State for three games in April.
23:25 So there's so much that goes into it with so many moving parts.
23:29 It's a pretty tough job making the baseball schedule for the Big 12.
23:34 So we don't know what that's going to look like,
23:36 but they try and take into account travel and exams and all that stuff.
23:40 So we don't really know what the future of scheduling looks like.
23:44 But it's pretty exciting for the fans to come see an Arizona State weekend.
23:49 If they continue to--I mean, they already expanded the conference season this year.
23:54 If they continue--does that make your non-conference scheduling easier
23:58 or more difficult, the fact that you're dealing with less non-conference games now?
24:03 A little bit of both.
24:04 It was never easy because we normally play five non-conference weekends before the season.
24:10 We were one of the only conferences that did that.
24:13 So finding a team to play that fifth weekend that wasn't in conference games was tough.
24:20 So it would be easier to schedule.
24:22 Got to be a little more strategic about it, I think.
24:25 If you turn into a league that has all those teams that are good teams and RPI games,
24:31 everybody's got a good RPI, you don't want to kill yourself opening weekend.
24:37 The SEC model normally has been go light on the non-conference weekends
24:42 because the RPI in the league is so good.
24:45 Again, it's a moving target.
24:47 You never know how it's going to be two or three years from now.
24:52 I mean, Terps turf, does it play the same or does it feel a little bit different?
24:59 It is different.
25:00 It's a little slower than it's been in the past.
25:04 So that thing you guys called Mazey ball in the past,
25:08 that went in the dumpster with the old turf probably.
25:12 It's not going to be that type of a team, but it does play differently.
25:16 I think it looks great.
25:19 Does everybody agree with me on that?
25:21 They asked me how I wanted it to look,
25:24 and I wanted that dang state of West Virginia in center field.
25:28 So I'm proud of that.
25:31 Usually when I make a decision that a lot of people don't like,
25:35 I usually blame it on somebody else that they made it.
25:38 But if you don't like the state of West Virginia in center field on this field,
25:42 you're going to have to deal with me on that one
25:44 because I wanted the people to be proud of the state that we come from,
25:51 and I wanted our players to be proud of the state that they play in.
25:55 So I wanted that darn state in center field.
25:58 I'm awful proud of that, and I think it looks great.
26:01 So normally people know running,
26:03 you guys would just go station to station all the time, huh?
26:07 You never do.
26:08 You always have some guys that can run.
26:10 We don't have near as many as we've had in the past.
26:13 There's three outfielders that we lost, all had double-digit homers,
26:17 double-digit stolen bases, and that's not going to be the case.
26:21 So we've got a couple guys that can run, but typically we have six or seven.
26:25 That's not this year's team by any means.
26:28 You mentioned Salve.
26:29 I'm also kind of thinking of Sam White, Ellis Garcia.
26:33 Do they have any chance of kind of making that freshman to sophomore jump
26:38 offensively?
26:39 No doubt.
26:40 Scott or King I guess would be another one maybe?
26:42 No doubt.
26:43 Those guys are all very, very capable.
26:46 They're all going to be middle of the lineup type guys,
26:49 and they're all capable of having not JJ type years.
26:54 Nobody has JJ type years, but those guys continue to progress.
26:58 Then this could be a pretty formidable lineup.
27:03 Any freshmen that jumped out to make a weekend lineup?
27:09 Probably more so on the transfer portal end of things.
27:13 We've got a big old dude from UT Arlington named Lumsden that hit a bunch of
27:19 homers his freshman year that has played pretty well for us.
27:25 He's going to be exciting.
27:26 We've got a junior college transfer named Brody Kresser that has played really
27:31 well this spring who's going to be in there.
27:35 We've got a kid named Reed Chumley who came to us from Houston Baptist,
27:40 hit over .390 in Division I.
27:44 You don't do that by accident.
27:46 But he's a draft league kid, so he's played in Morgantown the last two summers.
27:53 I think more so transfer portal kids than true freshmen,
27:57 which there's a chance that will be the case every year moving forward.
28:02 That's kind of what we've gravitated towards.
28:05 But, yeah, I feel pretty good about this team.
28:07 I think we can go 12 guys deep and not lose much.
28:13 Making a lineup is going to be a little bit of a trick this year,
28:16 especially early on because we have a lot of guys that should be in a starting
28:22 lineup that aren't going to be.
28:24 They only let me put nine of them out there.
28:26 And if you have 12 good ones,
28:28 then three of them aren't too happy with old Coach Mays when the game starts.
28:31 But we'll rotate those guys in and out and see how it settles at the halfway point.
28:38 One of those guys you just mentioned,
28:40 I mean obviously last year Wallace and McNeely were huge for you coming out of
28:44 the portal.
28:45 Any of those guys kind of comparable or do you see similar --
28:50 Not comparable at all.
28:52 Those guys were runners.
28:55 They could steal bases for you, dynamic.
28:59 Landon Wallace's personality was -- and his energy.
29:05 And we have more bangers that don't run much that are going to hit doubles kind
29:12 of guys and occasional homers.
29:14 So pretty different complexion of this team for sure.
29:19 Kyle West did some good things at Division II level last couple years.
29:22 What's the biggest step that he has to take to be able to contribute for you?
29:27 Getting used to this level.
29:29 When that cat gets used to this level,
29:33 then it could be scary for some people because he hit -- at the University of
29:37 Charleston he hit hundreds of homers I think.
29:41 And when he makes the transition to this pitching consistently,
29:45 he's got a chance to be a really big performer for us.
29:49 And he's a West Virginia kid.
29:51 That would be awesome.
29:53 Rooting for that kid so hard to make the transition.
29:56 He's a great kid.
29:58 He's got more power than anyone on the team.
30:00 He can hit the ball harder.
30:02 I would love to see him settle in there some way,
30:07 somehow in the middle of the lineup and be consistent.
30:10 He would have a chance to be a 20-homer guy at this level if he makes that
30:16 transition.
30:18 One name I haven't heard so far today is Grandpa C.
30:21 He's going to drive that some run to it, isn't he?
30:24 Yeah, you know, he's a different player this year.
30:27 He's worked really hard.
30:29 He appears that he's cut down on his strikeouts,
30:32 which was always the thing for him.
30:35 And everybody in Pro Bowl says, "Well, if you're going to hit homers,
30:39 you're going to strike out."
30:41 When is a strikeout ever a good play?
30:43 I don't know.
30:44 I guess I'm old school.
30:45 But he needed to cut that down.
30:48 I think he has.
30:49 But, yeah, he'll be a middle of the lineup, double-digit homer,
30:53 tremendous defensive first baseman.
30:56 That would be really nice for him to have a big year for us.
31:00 Somebody's going to have to for sure.
31:03 You've made it this far and really haven't talked pitching a whole lot.
31:06 Do you know which rotation might look like?
31:08 And do you know who your closer might be on the back end of things?
31:12 Rough idea.
31:14 You know, there's a chance.
31:15 I say the transfer portal has been good to us.
31:17 There's a chance that our weekend rotation could all be transfer portal guys.
31:23 We feel that good about some of the pitching that we brought in here.
31:29 Hayden Cooper has pitched really well for us.
31:32 Derek Clark.
31:34 Tyler Switalski.
31:36 Guys you've never heard of, right?
31:39 But you're going to see a lot of them.
31:41 And, of course, Aiden Major's back.
31:45 He's probably our most experienced returning guy.
31:51 Carson Estridge and Van Kempen and Max Yale,
31:54 the super freshmen from last year, all are going to be in the mix.
31:59 Looks like starting out, David Hagman will be on the back end.
32:03 He's got tremendous stuff.
32:05 Pitched really well for us last year out of the bullpen.
32:07 So he's very capable of finishing games for us.
32:11 So we've pitched pretty well here the last two weeks of inter-squad games.
32:18 So we'll see how they do.
32:21 But they're pretty talented.
32:23 One of our position players, I heard him say the other day,
32:26 that he feels like our pitching this year is better than it was last year.
32:30 And he's the one standing in the box.
32:31 I'm just watching from the dugout.
32:33 So I don't know that we have a 10-game winner,
32:37 but we might have 10 five-game winners.
32:41 But if you do the math, 10 times 5 is 50.
32:45 I'll take that.
32:47 You win 50, you've had a pretty good year.
32:50 So we have guys that are very capable.
32:52 When you look at how last year unfolded,
32:56 was pitching, as you move forward to this year,
32:59 was pitching where you felt like you had to get better?
33:05 I mean, we were pretty good on all sides of the ball last year.
33:08 I knew replacing those three outfielders was going to be a trick
33:12 because those guys were really good for us.
33:14 They all hit, like I said, double-digit homers, double-digit stolen bases,
33:19 were great defenders.
33:21 So that was going to be a big piece of it, replacing those guys.
33:25 And, you know, Traxell and Hampton pitched a lot of innings for us last year,
33:30 and we knew those guys.
33:33 We had to replace those guys, their innings.
33:36 So I'd say the pitching in the outfield.
33:39 And we knew Logan Sauve would be super capable of catching,
33:45 and the infielders with J.J. and Huss and Egar, and those guys would be fine.
33:51 But it was the pitching in the outfield that needed addressed the most.
33:55 I mean, you kind of mentioned those freshmen last year, Estridge, Hagemann,
34:00 Porco, Max Yell.
34:03 I kind of called them like a basketball team.
34:05 They're all tall.
34:06 They can all kind of throw it and bring it.
34:09 Of course, they were all freshmen.
34:10 You didn't really know where it was going to go.
34:13 Their progression as a group from last year to this year, control-wise,
34:18 are they still bringing it?
34:19 And having pitchers, a group of them, that can throw 90-plus, 94.
34:24 What does that -- I mean, that probably brings another aspect.
34:28 Yeah, you know, you want those guys -- they all were good for us last year.
34:34 None of them were great.
34:36 They were all good.
34:37 But guys that look like that and throw like that, you want them to be great.
34:42 At some point, they're going to have to make that transition from good to great.
34:47 But Manoa didn't do it until his third year in the program.
34:51 Nick Snyder, if you guys remember Nick Snyder,
34:54 the year before Nick Snyder was Nick Snyder,
34:58 he never made it through an inning of baseball as a Mountaineer.
35:02 I'd put him in the game.
35:03 I'd have to go get him.
35:04 He could never finish an inning.
35:06 But then he turned into Nick Snyder.
35:08 So at some point, all those big dudes that have great talent have to figure out
35:14 how to be great pitchers because great stuff doesn't mean you're a great pitcher.
35:20 You have to learn how to become a great pitcher.
35:22 So to say that that's happened yet and one of those guys can win ten games,
35:28 not ready to do that yet.
35:30 But ask Coach Saban's that question next year at this time,
35:34 and hopefully he'll say, "Yeah, they're ready to be great," because it's coming.
35:40 You're just not that big and that talented without it coming at some point.
35:45 So it's coming.
35:46 Hopefully it'll be this year.
35:47 Sometimes it doesn't happen until the middle of the season.
35:51 Earlier you talked about how you kind of spoke with J.J. about him
35:55 kind of just focusing on baseball.
35:56 Is there a sense that you have to also remind others of that when there's a lot
36:01 of scouts and eyeballs on West Virginia baseball because of J.J.
36:04 that they also should not have so much pressure on themselves
36:07 and stick to baseball?
36:09 It's a lot easier for the other guys than it is for J.J.
36:13 It's a lot easier for the other guys to see the scouts up there
36:17 and know that they're here to watch J.J.,
36:20 and so that's a wonderful opportunity for them.
36:23 Sometimes as a baseball player, you just have to have one good game.
36:29 We had a kid named Corey Walter here when I first got here.
36:32 There wasn't a scout that knew who he was until we played the Big 12 tournament
36:37 and he had a good game.
36:40 It was a game that all the scouts were at and they were like, "Who's this guy?"
36:44 So with all the scouts coming to watch J.J., if a Grant Hussey has a couple of homers
36:51 or if a David Hagman has a great game or Aiden Major has a great game,
36:56 people are going to notice those guys when they're here to watch J.J.
37:01 So no pressure on everybody else.
37:04 It's just a wonderful opportunity for them to have that chance to be seen
37:10 by a lot more people.
37:12 Brandy, new guy on your support staff, Drew Heffner, how did he get on your radar?
37:16 Do you look for a local guy in that spot and what does his role kind of entail?
37:21 He's a jack of all trades.
37:24 His name came across my desk late last spring
37:29 and talked to him a couple times on the phone.
37:33 I have so much pride in West Virginia because I've been here for a while.
37:37 We don't have many guys on the team from West Virginia.
37:39 I think we have four on this team, maybe three, maybe four, I can't remember.
37:44 But any time that we can surround our team, 35 guys that aren't from West Virginia,
37:52 with people from West Virginia so they can sense the pride
37:56 that West Virginia people have in this program,
38:00 that just helps the culture of what we're trying to build here.
38:04 He's a pretty local guy that had a lot of success in college and great personality.
38:11 I think he has a great future in this business because he--
38:15 let's face it, our business is more about communicating than anything
38:18 and getting kids to do what you want them to do, and he's capable of that.
38:24 He's been a wonderful addition for me.
38:28 I enjoy coming between him and Justin Oney, two West Virginia kids
38:32 that are surrounding me every day in the office.
38:35 They keep me pretty grounded too, so I love having that local flavor on the staff.
38:42 Coach, I've often wondered over the years,
38:45 like when a college coach has a player on their roster,
38:48 it's projected to go number one, number two in the draft.
38:52 What kind of pressures there might be on that coach to feature that kind of kid
38:59 or to make sure that kid reaches his potential?
39:02 Obviously football, basketball, a little different
39:04 because you have to get the ball to that kid.
39:07 In baseball, is it more than--you've got to put JJ's name in the lineup.
39:11 Is it more to it than that?
39:13 The biggest thing for us is in his position in our sport,
39:20 there's going to be failure.
39:22 If you're the best football player out there and throw for 400 yards every game,
39:27 you can have a good game every game in football and win the Heisman.
39:32 If you're the best college basketball player, you can have a good game every game.
39:37 In baseball, you can't.
39:39 So it's more about coaching him through the bad days more so than the good days
39:47 because if he lets it get to him, if he goes 0 for 4,
39:53 lines out to the right fielder twice, if he thinks, "Oh my goodness,
39:57 how many scouts saw me do that?"
39:59 If that gets into his head, it can snowball on you.
40:02 So you have to be stronger mentally in this game than you do physically.
40:07 I haven't talked to JJ once about stealing second base or hitting
40:14 or anything like that, but I talk to him a lot about how you're going to handle it
40:19 if you make an error, that type of thing.
40:23 It's a little bit different in our sport.
40:26 And then freshman Jameson from Morgantown High,
40:30 he's been committed for a long time, I know that,
40:33 but what have you seen from him early on and down the road with him?
40:38 What kind of player can he be for you?
40:40 The tools are off the charts tremendous.
40:42 He can hit it so far and he can run really fast and he can throw the baseball.
40:46 It's just like anybody.
40:48 It's making the transition.
40:53 Kyle West is still making the transition,
40:55 and he's been in college for a couple years trying to make the transition.
40:59 These kids that come from high school, it's just--
41:03 nobody just steps into this level and has success immediately.
41:09 Nobody does that.
41:10 Not a pitcher, not a hitter.
41:12 So there is a transition period, and they're all going through it.
41:17 It all becomes a mentality of I get it,
41:23 I understand that the definition of development has the word "time" in it,
41:28 so it takes time to develop as a player.
41:32 It's how are you going to handle the days where you're not in the lineup
41:36 or somebody pinch hits for you or somebody comes in and pitches for you.
41:41 You've got to be able to handle that if you're going to be a good player eventually.
41:45 You have to stay healthy.
41:47 You've got to stay mentally strong.
41:49 You've got to do all the things and just wait for your time to come.
41:52 When your time comes, take advantage of those opportunities.
41:57 Everybody's going to get opportunities.
42:00 It's just who takes advantage of them.
42:03 All this wisdom you're bestowing upon player/manager relationships
42:08 and what you have to do psychologically,
42:12 have you been talking to Savens about that,
42:15 and will this year be more of a lesson for him on those levels?
42:22 You know, I don't want Saves to try to be me.
42:26 That would never work.
42:28 When Skip Burtman left LSU and Smoke LaValle took over for him,
42:33 I think Smoke tried to be Skip.
42:35 Skip was the ultimate motivator,
42:38 and if you're the ultimate motivator, then second place is way far behind you.
42:44 So I don't want Saves to try to be me at all.
42:48 He's got a different style of the way he does things,
42:51 and I want him to blossom as a head coach within his style.
42:56 I'll be more than happy to help if he needs my help.
43:01 He's heard me say that good leaders can't be good at everything.
43:06 Surround yourself with people that are,
43:09 and if he wants my help in an area that he feels like I have a strength in,
43:13 I'll be more than happy to help him.
43:15 But I want Saves to be Saves,
43:17 and if I didn't think Saves being Saves was good enough,
43:22 then I wouldn't have my son come and play for him.
43:26 So I think it's plenty good enough to take this program to places
43:31 that it's never been before.
43:33 If he takes this program to Omaha three years from now,
43:37 I'll actually feel good about the fact that I still had a part of that,
43:42 even though I'm not the head coach, because I wanted to see this transition.
43:47 Have we all not seen what a non-smooth transition looks like
43:51 in the head coaching ranks?
43:53 I thought this program had to have a smooth transition
43:58 to sustain the level that we've reached,
44:01 and I think it's the smoothest transition possible,
44:05 and the right guy will be on the field telling them how to do it.
44:09 Thank you, Coach.